SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO involves techniques, strategies, and tactics that increase the amount of visitors you get to your site by helping your content match up with the keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for. The result is ranking higher in search engines for those keywords.

When a person types a phrase into Google, the search engine will generate a listing of the most relevant and authoritative results that match that key phrase along with what the searcher intended.

To rank well, you need to identify the keywords that your target niche is searching for and use them in the posts you put on your websites. Don’t overdo it - keyword stuffing is a waste of time at best and downright hurtful to your site at worst.

If you truly want to rank well, make sure to put your keywords in the title tag and meta description along with alt tags too.

Be sure to use multimedia like videos and pictures. This keeps your readers attention and increases the amount of time they spend on your site. In turn, this lowers your bounce rate.

A lower bounce rate tells Google that this page matched the keyword searched for much better than one where a searcher simply hit the back button.

Do your best to use longer content and to write on topics your audience will enjoy reading. Your titles need to be eye-catching and you should use subheadings to help your viewers scan your post for the most relevant parts.

Don’t be afraid to talk more colloquially and less formally too. Be sure to spell properly, but write in a style that will attract your audience rather than bore them.

Never forget that content is king. You need to have extremely high-quality content or your site will not be valued as highly as others - not by real people and not by search engines.

The whole idea of SEO in 2016 is not fooling or tricking Google. Gaming the system is an old tactic that does not work in the long term. You need to work within the Google guidelines and to try your hardest to make sure that your website and content are exactly what your audience wants. Doing this might seem really hard at first, but in the long run you’ll appreciate the effort it took and will reap the rewards.

If you post valuable content often and really try to network with important people in your niche, you will start generating traffic to your site in a big way.

Remember, without SEO you’ll never grow into the law firm you know you can be.

Stay tuned for more posts about SEO, online marketing, and general advice to help you grow your business online.